An ode to Amos

So I had "one of those days" recently, which tend to frequent my new life in Africa. Call it culture shock (which peace corps does), call it weakness, call it whatever you want. But there's just some days where you don't want to leave the house. In the states I would say I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, so I guess in this case I've woken up on the wrong side of the world, and a day in Africa with the constant "muzungu, give me money" just seems like the worst thing imaginable. But alas, i'm here, and i'm not leaving....so i'll deal with it. Finding a way to deal with it (besides walking immediately to the local watering hole) can sometimes be tricky.

In this case I decided to take a hike to these "stones", or boulders, that sit on a hill above my town. I've often looked at these boulders, which are just visible from my back stoop at the parish, and wondered what the view would be like from there. Well, now you know almost as well as I do. This picture (or any) really cant do justice to the view from up there. you have 360 degrees of rolling green hills, banana plantations, little stone houses, and mountains. You can see as far as your eyes (or the air) will let you - which I'm estimating is about 60 km's on all sides.

Lucky for me this "hike" turned out to be a walk up a driveway. Yep, at the top of the hill right next to the boulders is a little house. Which is good for me as this means I can walk up here quite easily, and therefore will be using this as a stress reliever for the next two years. While I was sitting on one of the boulders admiring the view and trying to pick out the parish in the distance - which in the picture above you need to find the long rooftop right in the middle off to the right of my collar, then move right till you see the cow pasture, then further right where u'll see a little rooftop just on the edge of the frame - a young boy of 15 came up and sat next to me. I soon learned he lived in the little house next to the boulders, and his family has lived on this hilltop for over 75 years. This was Amos. And although he spoke very little english (even less than i speak Rutooro) we sat on the boulders for a couple hours, mostly in silence, save whenever i would question him about something in the distance. Which he usually responded with just a confused look and then a smile and then "yes". The one successful conversation we did have was when I asked him (in broken Rutooro) which was his favorite view (noogonza kulaba nkaha - you like to look where). To answer this he brought me over to the largest rock that looks west to the Rwenzori's and pointed off in the distance and said "snooze, in morning". Of course my first thought was to agree and say, yeah me too, i never get up on time. But what he meant was that in the morning he comes to here because you can see the snow on the peaks of the Rwenzori's. Something I will definitely be trying to make it for at some point. So why an ode to Amos, this young boy who sat mostly in silence with me for 3 hours? Well it gave me a subtle reminder that for all of those people who sit on the side of the road and shout "give me money" or some other thoughtless remark, there are people like Amos who just want to share something with you or sit next to you for a while (next to = 5 feet away and slightly behind me where he can investigate my every movement).